WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR APRIL 2020

LisaInAR wrote: »

Rita - so sorry about the break-in at the storage unit! My sister's entire neighborhood got scrawled on night before last by kids spraying graffiti, including her car, as well as others, houses, RVs, fences, barns, and she's feeling pretty targeted as well. I have little sympathy for thieves and destructive delinquents--pretty much a waste of skin in my opinion.

Kylia - my heart goes out to your husband and to you. I can't believe you still have the Red Fairy book!

Thank you to whoever mentioned the Nancy Drew books--I read every one I could get my hands on! Plus all the Hardy Boys mysteries, as soon as I found those.

Also all of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women series.

In my mid-teens, a couple of coffee table books fascinated me, I read them until the covers fell off--one was Bloodletters and Badmen, by Jay Robert Nash, and the other was the same huge size book, all about the Hollywood stars from the beginning to the 1950s or so. Both were probably from the mail-order book club my mother belonged to at the time.

Also in my mid-teens, my father also went through an occult phase (don't ask, long story), so The Occult by Colin Wilson was one of many I read regarding Aleister Crowley, Madame Blavatsky, and so on. Not exactly comfort reading, but still, that's what my memory is dredging up.

More frustrations at work... so I'll spoiler it. Not the galloping never-get-overs, but not good timing.

So... finished a complex grant that I've been working on for two weeks. It's due next Monday. Worked with all the directors, membership, program and volunteer, to come up with something that would work for the girls who can be reached through online means, plus printed packets for the girls who don't have ready access to the Internet in the more rural areas.

Sent the final numbers out to the directors, and one tells me she wasn't aware the cost of the mailing would be so high, and it wasn't in her expense budget. These budgets were set last year in August and September. Of course this is not in her budget. If we win it, it's being funded by a major funder because of the coronavirus pandemic, which did not exist last September.

What I've finally figured out is that the directors have been told that the only money they can spend in this fiscal year is money in the expense budget that has been approved by the board. It doesn't matter how many times I say, "But I'm also asking for funding to support the project," which will also bump up the revenue side, if it isn't in the EXPENSE budget for this year, I can't apply for it because they can't spend the money.

The shortsightedness of this is breathtaking. And absolutely hamstrings me for applying for any new funding that will show up in the same year. I can only apply for next year. This was not good to hear after hearing that 99% of everything I've already applied for is futile as well. (See last spoiler.)

My husband says, "Stop trying to get anything new for this year, then." Perhaps he's right. And perhaps this only upsets me so much because I'm seeing it as one last stab at fixing a year that feels wasted and useless, when we're just over halfway through.

Love y'all,
Later,
Lisa